New Milford: Paid daytime ambulance staff is necessary

The private, volunteer ambulance corps told the Town Council last week that it intends to contract for two paid emergency medical technicians for four or five days a week between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

This step is somewhat painful, but absolutely necessary. It should not, however, be the final step.

For the first time, townspeople will be billed when they call an ambulance during a daytime emergency. This is a change. For decades the corps, a dedicated group of volunteers, has served the town well and without charges to those who need help.

Insurance companies will be billed and sliding scales are available for the average $350 to $375 cost set by the state, based on services rendered.

Town Council member Mary Jane Lundgren, a nurse, made a good point when she worried that someone might not call an ambulance out of concern for the cost.

Or, what if someone having heart attack symptoms at 5:45 p.m. waited 15 minutes before calling for help to avoid a charge?

The community ambulance corps needs to inform townspeople of the payment options, along with the upcoming changes.

Without question, paid daytime staff is needed for the town.

An examination of six months of records by The Greater New Milford Spectrum last winter showed emergency response times lagged behind the state average of 9.8 minutes. Also, nearly once a week, on average, the town has to turn to neighboring communities for help.

The state Department of Public Health is investigating a complaint by a resident after his wife, who was having a stroke, had to wait more than an hour during the day for an ambulance in February. The investigation was expected to take a year.

The civic-minded community ambulance corps reached the right conclusion to hire daytime staff. It was also a smart decision, given that the town agreed last fall to spend $3.75 million to build a new facility for the two ambulances. A zoning hearing is scheduled for Oct. 25.

Now the town needs to do some homework on the best path to emergency medical care.

Although individual townspeople have not been charged for ambulance services, the town has been paying nearly $159,000 a year for its part of a seven-town paramedic service. (Paramedics can administer more aid than EMTs can.)

Bethel, a 17-square-mile town with approximately 18,000 residents, recently decided to have its own paramedic. It had been sharing with only one other town, Redding.

Should New Milford, much larger with 64 square miles and about 28,000 townspeople, continue to share paramedic services with six other towns?

That question -- and an overall plan for best serving the emergency medical needs of a growing town -- must be examined.